Duck Dynasty Family Faced Health Challenge That Made Them Say ‘Why Us?’- Then They Realized Something.

Faith and commitment have helped the “Duck Dynasty” family face the ongoing challenge of their youngest child’s health, Missy Robertson told Fox on Tuesday.

Robertson has written a new book titled “Blessed, Blessed…Blessed.” The book recounts the family’s challenges. The title, Robertson said, is significant. It stands for each of their three children, with the ellipses signifying time when the Robertson’s dealt with miscarriages, struggles to get pregnant, and the diagnosis that Mia, 12, would be born with a cleft palate and a cleft lip.

“We have a strong commitment to our family, nobody’s going anywhere,” Missy said. “And Mia’s just a wonderful human being despite having these challenges, so I’m hoping it will give people hope and encouragement that no matter what trial they’re going through, if they’ll take some of the aspects that I lay out in the book, and also some of the mistakes that we made that we’re able to share, they can say ‘OK, if they can do this, I can do this.'”

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A cleft palate occurs when the roof of the mouth does not join together completely during pregnancy. A cleft lip occurs when lip tissue does not join completely before birth. Both can drastically impact a person’s appearance.

Mia is being treated at the International Craniofacial Institute in Dallas, Texas. Treatments began almost immediately after Mia’s birth and are ongoing.

Most recently, Mia underwent a procedure in which surgeons had to break Mia’s top jaw from the bottom, pull it forward, re-attach it and treat the bone with growth hormones to keep the top and bottom growing at the same rate.

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“It was definitely the hardest one in my opinion,” Robertson said.

“I had to insert a tool every day at home and turn these screw-like objects and it pulled the jaw forward a half a millimeter each time, and the last week (the doctor) said it wasn’t doing it fast enough, so we had to do it three times a day for that third week,” she said.

For now, no other surgeries are planned. Mia wears headgear at night and sees an orthodontist regularly.

“We’re just going to try to enjoy life and let her do her gymnastics, competition cheer and be a kid, and live a normal life for a while,” Robertson said. “We take it little by little.”

“We overcame it but you know, we’re all still on the journey,” Robertson said, adding, “but we’re making it and I think we’ve done a really good job in using the knowledge and information that we have.”

The Robertson’s have started a website, MiaMoo.org, to share what they have learned.

“Knowledge is power so we want to make sure that the parents are informed enough so that they can make the decision that fits best for them and their child,” Robertson said.